Teaching Artists

BPA's education programs are committed to building on student strengths, teaching new skills, and providing a positive, safe environment where students of any age can grow both artistically and personally, all while having fun! BPA employs a talented cadre of Teaching Artists and Assistants that are eager to generate a positive impact in each student's educational and theatrical experience. Join our team and apply today!

Pete Benson - Director of Education

From the age of nine, Pete Benson pounded the boards in San Jose, California working primarily with San Jose Children’s Musical Theater (Now CMT San Jose) and City Lights Theater Company. After gaining a two-year degree from the Professional Actor’s Conservatory in Orange County he performed up and down the West Coast with various theaters, including The Western Stage and PCPA. Looking to further refine his skills, Pete attended California Institute of the Arts and graduated with a BFA in Theater Arts. For the last two decades, Pete has been working with Matt Groening Productions, first in the design department of the animated-show Futurama and then for a decade-long stint in merchandise and publishing with all of MGP properties, including The Simpsons and Life in Hell. Pete has most recently been seen in several BPA productions including Much Ado About Nothing, August: Osage County, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Katharine Beddoe

Katharine Beddoe is excited to join the BPA Education team and to meet her new students! She has a passion for theatre ed, not only for teaching performance technique, but for the communication skills we can learn through performance and play. Katie has taught theatre at Camp CSTOCK (2013- 15) and collaborated for theatrical performances with her peers at the college level. She is currently finishing her MDS degree in Artistic Communications through Western Washington University, but has also studied theatre and English through Whitworth University in Spokane. Her favorite performance credits in higher education include Mrs. Smith in The Bald Soprano, the Duchess of York in Richard III, and Mrs. Bennet in Jon Jory's Pride and Prejudice. In high school, she would've been seen in over two dozen shows around Kitsap County and a workshop performance of The Baker's Wife in Into the Woods with 5th Avenue's education program. All of these experiences have made her eager to get back into Kitsap's theatre community, and she is especially excited to meet YOU in the next class session!

Scott Breitbarth

Scott Breitbarth’s taste for theatre was born within the walls of Bainbridge Performing Arts. In addition to performing in multiple school and community productions on the island, he studied at Bainbridge Dance Center for 10 years. During high school, he also laid the foundation for the dance/choreography program at Kitsap Children’s Musical Theatre, leading and choreographing multiple productions.

Scott went on to earn a B.A. in Film Production at the University of Southern California in 2015 before returning to Seattle as a filmmaker, choreographer and freelance promotional artist for BPA and organizations all across King and Kitsap. He has built and designed projections for multiple BPA productions, including Big Fish (2017), last year’s summer productions of Willy Wonka and Into the Woods, and this season’s Return To The Forbidden Planet (2018). He made his choreography debut in the community last winter with Masquerade (2018) at Ovation! Performing Arts Northwest.

Scott currently teaches tap for all ages at Bainbridge Ballet.

Patrick Dalrymple

Originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Patrick Dalrymple studied music education, piano, and voice at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Pat is currently the choir director in the Bainbridge Island School District, and the Accompanist for the Olympic Girls' Choir. Since high school, he has been involved in musical theater productions as a performer and director, and he was the music director for the Duquesne University productions of Footloose, Anything Goes, and The Drowsy Chaperone. As a former competitive musician, Patrick is excited to work with BPA and help advance the culture of art and performance in his new community of Bainbridge Island.

Barbara Deering

Barbara Deering has graced the BPA stage in many productions over the last two decades – starting with Alma Rose in Playing For Time right up to this past season as Melissa in Love Letters. She has appeared in two episodes of Grimm, several Health Care commercials and has carried roles in Georgia, Grassroots, and Autumn Waltz – all films made right here in the Northwest.Hand in hand with her acting career, Barbara has been teaching theater and music stretching over a span of 40 years, and she loves to help children and adults alike take their artistic development to their next level. Her classes will study plays, their authors, the characters, and their scenes and monologues. Whether you are an actor or a fan of theater arts, there is a place for you.

Kate Drummond

Kate Drummond completed the Seattle Children's Theatre Teaching Apprenticeship in May 2015, after a great summer as the Young Actor Institute Intern. She has a BA in Drama from Washington University in St. Louis, where she explored acting and directing, and developed a specialized interest in Shakespearean verse. Since moving to Seattle, she has performed with Jet City Improv, Unexpected Productions, and several independent improv groups. Kate teaches for many organizations in and around Seattle, including the Seattle Children's Theatre, Bainbridge Performing Arts, foundry10, Salmon Bay School, Youth Theatre Northwest, and Seattle Shakespeare Company's Short Shakes program. She has been seen on the Jet City stage in several featured shows, including Claim of Thrones, Antiques Improv Show, and Black Flag. When not teaching or performing, Kate can be found in working up in the office as Jet City Improv's Education Coordinator.

Miranda Feldtman

Miranda Feldtman began her theatre education as a student in the BPA Theatre School alongside the incomparable Liz Ellis. Since then, she has been teaching, performing, and technically assisting at Bainbridge Performing Arts for the past fifteen years. In 2017 alone, she collaborated as an assistant instructor and playwright for Voyages of Doctor Doolittle; assistant stage managed for The Bard at Bloedel's production of Merry Wives of Windsor; technically assisted for the northwest premiere production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert; and terrified young children as the Childcatcher in the winter production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She now hopes to spend 2018 invigorating a love of theatre in young children!

Helen Heaslip

Helen Heaslip recently moved to Bainbridge Island from London where she worked as a movement tutor and choreographer on the BA and MA Acting programs at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Work at RCSSD includes: It’s A Mad World, My Masters, The White Devil, The Country Wife, As I Lay Dying, We The Animals, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet

As a freelance Movement Director recent theatre work includes: Festen (NCTC/12th Avenue Arts); Until You Hear That Bell (Battersea Arts Centre); Quiet Violence (Roundhouse Theatre/Edinburgh Festival); Much Ado About Nothing, (Bridewell Theatre); Pride and Prejudice; Wind in the Willows; The Secret Garden (Heartbreak Theatre); and Lizzy, Darcy and Jane (Tabard Theatre). Helen has choreographed flashmobs for Omnibus Theatre and Red Door Communications, and the time travel film Birth Cloud.

As an performer, Helen has appeared as Linda in Festen; Frances in Modern Dance for Beginners; Jeanette in Last of The Red Hot Lovers; and Ariel in The Tempest, among others, as well as touring in the UK production of Frantic Assembly’s Rabbit. She can also be seen in the independent films First Light, One in a Million. Wait For Me, and Without a Face.

Helen trained in Ireland with the Audley School of Dance (where she also taught) and the Cork Dance Company; in London she received her BA in Musical Theatre at Arts Ed, and studied with the Rambert Dance Company.

Patrick Hurlburt

Patrick Hurlburt found a home in the theater at a young age and has remained a grateful student of the stage for many years. He received a bachelor's degree in acting from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked for two years after graduation. He moved to Seattle in 2014 and enjoyed working with several local companies, including Ghost Light Theatricals, Theater Schmeater, and Forward Flux Productions. Since moving to Bainbridge last year, he has turned his attention back to the classroom, where he first fell in love with the performing arts. He sees the theater as an arena of immeasurable educational value, a place in which to practice and refine the skills necessary for self-reflection, communication, and collaboration.

Lisa Mandelkorn

Lisa Mandelkorn joins the education staff as an experienced performer, voice teacher and vocal coach. After earning her Masters in Music at New England Conservatory and Diploma in Opera from Boston University, Lisa spent many years as a professional opera singer in New York City. She came to us on Bainbridge Island in 2010 where she has thrown herself into community life as a frequent performer at BPA (Mary in Mary Poppins, Mother in Christmas Story), and a voice teacher of both young and adult performers.

Mark Nichols

After getting his BFA in Drama (USC), Mark Nichols served as Performing Arts Director for Spirit Square (Charlotte, NC) promoting and designing hundreds of productions. Afterwards he served as Project/Show Producer for Disney, Universal Studios, and others, overseeing all aspects of entertainment projects such as Harry Potter the Exhibition global tour and Reflections of Earth (at Epcot). In 2012, Mark quit 30-years of corporate entertainment, eloped with Blair(!), got his Theatre MFA, and moved here. He has enjoyed working with BPA (on the Board and helping with shows) and BARN (serving as their first Executive Director). His focus is now primarily performing arts! Visit Mark online.

Mark Wesley Power

Mark Wesley Power taught his first voice lesson at the age of 18 and has been teaching beginning to professional vocal students in the greater northwest area for more than 12 years. Prior to that, he trained and taught in Los Angeles, and New York City, beginning in 1983. Through his eclectic background as a martial arts instructor and opera singer, Master Mark Power combines the mental and athletic wisdom of a martial artist and applies the methodology to singing. With the right frame of mind and application of the body, any type of singing can be achieved. Mark’s students are able to sing opera, pop, rock and roll, musical theatre, jazz, R & B, and any other genre desired. For several years, he taught Disney and Hollywood star Dove Cameron before she moved to Los Angeles to further pursue her music and acting career. Other students have worked professionally in Opera and on Broadway. In 2009, Mark worked alongside Ryan Gosling with his touring show, “Dead Man’s Bones.”

REECE SAUVÉ (MUSICAL DIRECTOR)

Reece Sauve is excited to be part of the music education program at Bainbridge Performing Arts! Over the past few years, he has garnered wide attention in niche circles for his work as a musical theatre director, pianist, vocalist, actor, and music teacher for all ages. His passion for performance quality is matched only by his passion for fun in the rehearsal process.

Reece studied piano performance and conducting at Willamette University and choral direction at Central Washington University. While at CWU, he co-founded the award-winning acapella ensemble Nada Cantata. Since its formation, the group has flourished and is now the flagship ensemble of an entire acapella program which thrives at the university entering its third generation of student-leadership.

His performance style is expressive, robust, and lends itself well to the dramatic nature of Musical Theatre. He exhibits a buoyant, magnetic energy in the rehearsal space and works hard to make sure that his students and casts are performing to their utmost potential when the curtain comes up.

His show credits as an actor include Company (Bobby), Peter Pan (Smee), and Wizard of Oz (Cowardly Lion). He has served as music and vocal director throughout Kitsap and Mason counties on titles including Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Annie and has lent his skills as an accompanist to shows such as Sound of Music, Urinetown, Ruthless!, and Pirates of Penzance.

When he isn’t rehearsing or performing, you’ll find Reece enjoying photography in the outdoors with his wife and their goofy dogs, swimming, experimenting in the kitchen, or playing board games with his friends.

ADAM SOMERS (DIRECTOR)

Adam Somers began his performing career at the age of four when he became a dancer at Kendorff Studios in Los Angeles. Shortly after that, Adam began acting for film and television, making appearances on MTV, Solid Gold, as well as in feature and independent films. After taking a short break and moving to Washington, Adam was accepted to the Young Actors Institute of Seattle at age 16 and found his true calling in Theatre – and that is where he stayed, other than a small stint on General Hospital for about 8 months in 2007. Adam has spent the last 20 years as a professional theatre performer, director, choreographer, fight director, educator, and mentor in the Seattle area, as well as Los Angeles, Tucson, and Phoenix. In that time, he has worked for such theatres as The 5th Avenue Theatre (along with their touring company Adventure Musical Theatre), Village Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Empty Space, Arizona Theatre Company, Second Story Rep, Capital Playhouse, and Bainbridge Performing Arts, among others. He has been blessed with the opportunity to work alongside such wonderful Broadway powerhouses as Tony award winner Faith Prince, Lucy Lawless, Tony award and Pulitzer Prize winner Brian Yorkey, Bronson Pinchot, Cheyenne Jackson, Steven Taylor, and Don Darryl Rivera. Recently Adam worked as the Assistant Director and Fight Director for BPA’s production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Ann Wilkinson Ellis

In 2000, Ann Wilkinson Ellis moved from NYC back to Bainbridge to co-produce award winning independent film Farewell to Harry. Ann's early acting roots and training started BPA as a founding member of the Greasepaint Repertory Company in the early '80's. She received her BA in Broadcast Communications & Theater from Principia College. Later she studied with Larry Silverberg at The Belltown Theater and Suzanne Shepherd in NYC –completing certification in the Sanford Meisner technique. Ann also studied at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Barrow Group and wrote, directed and performed with the Hudson Theatre Labs.

Since Farewell to Harry, Ann taught writing/acting workshops for teenagers on the island with Hat Factory Film Studios/Theatre. These students wrote, performed and directed dynamic new works. When she is not busy with her two children Nobelle and Harrison and husband John Ellis, Ann hits the boards whenever she can. Her performances include roles in BPA's 2017 award wining August Osage County* (Ann won *Best Supporting Actress from S. Sound Stage Awards), Private Eyes, It's a Wonderful Life - Radio Play, The Reimer's of Eldritch and The Vagina Monologues and many Island Theater productions.

Ann loves directing and teaching young adults and is passionate about excellence in acting and empowering students through hard work in the craft and developing student's unique essence as performers.